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My Blog and I

My name is Diana. I am the blogger behind Offbeat Vagabond. I just
wanted something to help me rant on about things I love or don't quite
love. I am big on books, especially Urban
Fantasy, it is my favorite genre. Any Romance has to be Paranormal,
because love isn't natural without a gun and a beast involved. Although my tastes are very much expanding, I have discovered a love for Contemporary even BDSM (shocking!) I love
movies. Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror/Action, pretty much anything as long as no
Romantic Comedies are involved (Katherine Heigl, you have been warned).
Music, TV, Wrestling are all my things as well (although I haven't been watching Wrestling as much as I used to). I am doing this for fun. I want to
write on a professional front, so blogging is a good stepping stone for
me. I just hope that stone doesn't have moss and I slip and break
something. So join me in my little piece of the Internet and remember,
it is normal to be abnormal

For weeks, the immortal warrior Aeron has sensed an invisible female presence. An angel--demon-assassin--has been sent to kill him. Or has she? Olivia claims she fell from the heavens, giving up immortality because she couldn't bear to harm him. But trusting--and falling for--Olivia will endanger them all. So how has this "mortal" with the huge blue eyes already unleashed Aeron's darkest passion? Now, with an enemy hot on his trail and his faithful demon companion determined to remove Olivia from his life, Aeron is trapped between duty and consuming desire. Worse still, a new executioner has been sent to do the job Olivia wouldn't....

Yet another book by Gena Showalter that has kept me up all night. Man, she gets me every time. This was a great addition to an already incredible series. One of the paranormal romance series that seems to get better and better.

The Darkest Passion is about Aeron, the Keeper of Wrath. He wasn’t a favorite for me when starting this series. But I think that has a lot to do with the fact that he scares the shit out of people. All the demons have a certain likeness about them, a certain charm. Not Aeron. He is covered head to toe in tattoos and he is just mean. He cares for his friends that much is obvious, but anyone outside of them can pretty much go screw themselves. That is our Aeron. So when the female entity that has been stalking Aeron for weeks finally makes herself known, he is quite surprised as to why she is so fond of him. He knows how people see him, so he is quite suspicious.

Olivia is utterly infatuated with Aeron. She is an angel and a warrior. She was sent to kill Aeron, but instead of killing him, she watches over him. After not killing him, the Council that put her on the mission in the first place, shunned her from Heaven and sent her to Hell. Her wings were taken from her (well ripped off her really) and she was tortured while in Hell. She fought her way out to find Aeron to be with him and so that he can help her.

I really enjoyed this book. Though I must admit, Olivia confused me in the beginning because she didn’t seem to know what she really wanted. She didn’t know whether she loved Aeron or not. Seriously? You are banished from Heaven, sent to Hell, tortured in unimaginable ways, and crawl straight out of Hell just to be with someone you just like?! If that is not love, I don’t know what is. But the more the book went on, I took a liking to her. Some of my favorites scenes were actually between Olivia and some of the people in the house. I loved the friendship that blossomed between her and Gideon. Aeron may have wanted to rip Gideon apart, but it was a nice scene seeing them get along so well.

I also love the interaction between her and Kaia. Kaia giving Olivia a slut makeover cracked me up. Also because of Kaia, Olivia did grow a pair, but I am not sure I liked it. She acted more like teenager rebelling sometimes. But I guess when you are an angel; you don’t have a chance to rebel. It was her coming-of-age story if you will. I love that even while she is growing, she doesn’t lose herself. She just becomes more aggressive and that is the sort of person Aeron needs. I can’t see him with the Olivia we got at the beginning of the book. Someone super innocent and timid, but with someone who is sweet but has some lady balls. That is what she earned in this book as it progressed and I am happy about that.

What I loved about this was all the different storylines we got. We get a little insight from Strider and mega-whore, William. We also follow Legion and find out that she is actually head-over-heels for Aeron. It was weird thinking her an adult, not a woman. The lengths she goes through for Aeron were insane. I won’t spoil it, but it was nice seeing her in a different light even though she was a little batshit crazy. I felt bad for her though and I can’t wait to see what will come of her and the situation she got herself into. We also get some of Gideon’s story (his book is up next) and I can’t wait for that. Gideon is one of my favorites out this ridiculously fantastic group of Lords. I hear his book is one of the best in the series and given the little surprise we got in this book concerning his past life, I am more than impatient for his book, The Darkest Lie.

I loved the fight scenes in the book. They were great and fast-paced. The angel, Lysander (who has his own short book, The Darkest Angel), hates Aeron. He is Olivia’s mentor and doesn’t understand why she wants to be with Aeron and he feels that Aeron will soil her with his “demonic” ways. The fight that takes place between them near the end of the book was so cool. After some sacrifice was made, we get quite the surprise. I loved the surprise. I won’t spoil it, but I was squealing near the end of the book, but it was short lived. I wasn’t 100% for the way things ended. I wish there was more because it was talked about since book one. I hope Showalter gives us more to this because I felt a little robbed where it was concerned. So let’s say it was bittersweet.

Overall, this was a great book. I did have a problem or two, but that doesn’t take away from the awesomeness of it all. Aeron is more likable than I expected. I am happy he got rid of his nearly unbreakable shell. He is still reserved, but hey, what can you do. So happy I stumbled on this series because seriously, I could never put it down. If you haven’t started the Lords of the Underworld, you really, really need to.

1 comment:

I'm a huge Gena fan. The Darkest Night started the paranormal kick for me. Of all the Lords books this one is at the bottom for me. I didn't like what she did to Aeron at the end of this story. I felt it made him weak compared to the rest of the guys. I did enjoy your review on it though.

Due to the daily spam comments I have been getting lately and to avoid the annoying word verification, Anonymous comments are no more. I do not want bargains on bags, watches, jerseys, boots and other crap. Geez, they could at least spam me with book and movie stuff, I would be somewhat interested LOL! Thank you :D